Warner Working to Enhance Learning Environment through New Registration Process

A marked increase in enrollment, beginning last year, coupled with a tendency toward late registration, has resulted in some oversubscribed courses. In order to ensure the instructional quality and individual attention that the Warner School strives to offer, administration has moved to limit students' registration in all courses, while still trying to meet students' individual needs.

In an effort to provide the best learning environment, each course has now been assigned a maximum number of students (or cap) and a lower first-come-first-served limit. Registering students are accepted into the course until this limit has been reached, then put on a waiting list. Students in each waiting list are ranked by their academic need and those with higher need are accommodated until the cap is reached. In the case of courses with a long waiting list, every effort is made to add an additional session or to provide some assistance to the instructor in order to accommodate a slightly higher number of students.

This complex system has been possible because the Warner School now has in-house registration. For the first time, this allows for course registrations to be monitored and individualized decisions to be made. Still, early registration continues to be critical in order to ensure students' enrollment in the course of their choice.

"With everyone's cooperation, especially the new Warner Registrar, Crys Cassano, the process has gone more smoothly than expected in its first implementation this Spring semester," says Dean Borasi. "While we will not be able to accommodate everyone's first choices each time, this will definitely be a benefit for all of our students."